Rrixawoopn.— On. Red Sunsets. 895 
Some people—and very rightly too—express wonder and unbelief at the 
possibility of dust being capable of being shot up to such a height as that 
ascribed to it, as to eause the red sunsets, but here I have quoted the fact 
of such as seen by a man of known repute; the dust and ash were shot up 
to that great height; and not only that, but as the dust cloud came between 
Mr. Whymper and the sun, he saw the phenomenon of the coloured sun. 
The same may be seen during any very heavy dust storm anywhere, when 
the cloud is between the observer and the sun. 
In this description, given by Whymper, we have a good illustration of 
the tremendous force Nature usesin these convulsions,—a force that could 
throw the finest dust to a height of 20,000 feet is almost inconceivable to the 
human mind,—and in that phenomenon-we have, I may say, only an every 
day occurrence when compared with that giant eruption of Krakatoa. Let 
us draw a comparison: At the destruction of Pompeii, situated at the foot 
of Vesuvius, where the city was enveloped with darkness from the density of 
the dust and ash cloud that shrouded it, and that ultimately buried it ;—but 
now contemplate the tremendous power that ejected from a mountain a 
sufficiency of dust and ash to envelope a city in total darkness for 36 hours, 
eighty miles distant. On that diagram I have sketched an imaginary 
picture of the eruption, and eighty miles distant is represented by a little 
over 14 inch, where you see the letter B., showing to your mind the relative 
distance of Batavia from Krakatoa. You can form in your imagination 
some idea of the great height the dust cloud ascended: to my mind twice 
forty would not be too great. Then again we have the ship ** Charles Bal," 
which, when 30 miles distant, was enveloped at noon-day in pitch darkness 
through the mud-fall. 
Furthermore, as Lockyer says, the sound, the least part of the affair, 
was heard over an area of 4,000 miles in diameter, viz., in Ceylon to the 
north-west, at Saigon to the north, and throughout North Australia to the 
south-east. In the last quarter, the reports were at 15 minutes' intervals, 
and sounded like ship guns, but as the hearers were from 150 to 200 miles 
from the coast, such cause could not be assigned. All that can be said is, 
that it is beyond the human mind to conceive of such gigantic forces, and 
therefore absurd to throw doubt on the result; by which I mean, that if 
the laws of refraction show that the'substanee, whatever it may be that 
causes the red glow, is at an altitude of 40 or 60 miles, it is ridiculous to 
doubt that result, when one cannot conceive the magias of the atis 
that operated. 
It was not only one eruption that took place, but several Pin the 
26th, the following night, and up to 11-15 a.m. of the 27th, about which 
time the grand finale is supposed to have taken place. These eruptions 
